The Bluebird Cafe Musical, Lebron & the Olympics, and Watching The Bear

Welcome to the Good Times. We all need a break, and we’d love to be yours in your regular news diet. Count on us for great reads, amusements, and fascinating stuff from the last week or so (in 5 mins or less).

Yes, we're doing this to amuse America (and ourselves), but we’ll also donate 10% of revenue to education and affordable housing charities when we start monetizing (not to worry though, this will remain a free newsletter). So kick back and enjoy.

The Good Times Roundup

MUSIC: Bluebird Cafe stage musical in the works. The legendary 86-seat Nashville venue where Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks, and Faith Hill got their starts is heading to the stage. The project was announced by veteran Nashville songwriter turned Broadway producer Wayne Kirkpatrick who said:

Creative details and timelines are still forthcoming.

FOOD: Food expiration dates cause massive food waste. Few things strike fear and indecision like a date in the past on food packaging - 'it's probably fine... but I also don't feel like dying today.' So go the thoughts for millions of us, and as a result, an enormous amount of safe food is discarded, roughly 68% of everything we throw away according to a recent study. Consumers believe these dates indicate food safety when they actually measure quality, and a movement’s afoot to either clarify or remove them altogether, which has proven promising: in 2007 the UK’s largest grocery chains took dates off 100s of items, and by 2018, food waste in landfills had fallen 18%.

HISTORY: A 1955 letter from John Steinbeck to Marilyn Monroe. Superb.

BASKETBALL: Lebron recruits NBA stars for Paris 2024. A couple weeks ago, the US Men's basketball team lost to Canada in the FIBA World Cup's 3rd place game, and that embarrassment has motivated Lebron to rally fellow NBA stars for next Summer's Paris Olympics. His top recruits include Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, and per The Athletic, the trio see it as a 'last dance' opportunity. But even if the stars jump on board, stiff competition lurks: 2-time MVP Nikola Jokic will play for Serbia, and France will field Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama, the teenage phenom and last year's top draft pick. Gold's not guaranteed, but will we at least place better than Canada this time? God willing.

ELECTRIC CARS: Sweden's innovative solution for powering electric cars. Range has long been an issue (the issue?) preventing electric vehicles from mass adoption - charging stations are scattered, and charging itself takes a long time. Taking aim at both problems, Sweden's Elonroad (no affiliation with Musk) is experimenting with electric tracks in the streets - cars charge as they drive, and the constant power supply means big batteries aren’t needed for extended range (small batteries mean lower costs too). Said a former racecar driver and lifelong auto enthusiast: 'Isn’t this the 3^rd rail NYC Subway System that's been around for a century+??????????' In short, yes - NYC trains have run on electricity since 1900, so at least we know the tech works. But scaling remains a huge challenge (securing investment + buy-in from governments won’t be easy). Great vid here from the BBC explaining it all.

Take the Day Off 🐘

It's National Elephant Appreciation Day. Who doesn't love elephants, and now you can 'adopt' your very own at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya. Get an 'adoption certificate,' email updates, and special content from keepers' diaries on your new family member.

Note: if you haven't watched The Bear and want to, the following's a spoiler-fest. But if you’re only curious about it, I'd say read on and hopefully this nudges you to give it a shot. It's the best show I've seen since Breaking Bad.  

Today's Article: Watching The Bear

My wife warned me, 'It's not relaxing.'

I’d heard The Bear was an excellent show - and really excellent, season 1 earned a 100% rotten tomatoes score - but I didn't know the actors or the story, and the simple premise of a restaurant with an ensemble cast seemed like nothing special.

‘Not relaxing' wasn't what I was looking for in my TV diet either - between work and toddler dadding, I prefer stuff requiring little to no sustained investment these days (sports, documentaries, etc.).

Still, too many I trusted sang the show's praises - I knew I'd like it, but would it grab me or exhaust me?

Well, I hit play for the first time a week or so ago and finished season 2 only days later around 3am. So you could say it did both.

I loved it. I loved it so much I started jotting down lines - I may even get an 'Every Second Counts' plaque to go alongside 'Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose' in my office.

But to get to that place of boundless joy the show starts at the bottom in the dysfunctional Beef's kitchen, and the experience is like tumbling in a washer machine mid cycle. I had to turn it off more than once (this is what my wife warned me about) and on top of that chaos, we meet the characters at a tough time. No one wants to be there but they muddle through, held by a thread, and that thread breaks at the end of the season when an onslaught of to-go orders melts the kitchen (figuratively) after a critic's unexpected good review.

Things look hopeless, but then the show turns. Carm, prodigy of the fine dining world, finds money his late brother Mikey hid - $300K worth - and that sets the team down a path of rebirth.

The Beef's retired and The Bear's born.

Now with a north star - opening a new restaurant on a tight timeline - the team pulls together and they invest in one another:

• Tina and Ebra, longtime cooks at the Beef, go to culinary school.

• Marcus, another cook with a passion for desserts, goes to Copenhagen to study under one of Carm’s old colleagues.

• Richie, Carm’s aimless ‘cousin’ with talents for people, is sent to a 3-star restaurant for a week.

• Carm names Sydney, an ambitious young chef, his number 2 for The Bear (his life's passion project)

• And Syd puts her faith in Carm's vision, not to mention the added money Uncle Jimmy puts into the venture.

Why such quick buy-in? Richie gives voice to it after Carm bails him out of jail:

'You're all I got, cuz.'

This team has no other options, and though the odds are long, success could change their lives. And failure? More of the same, so why not try like hell.

Some great moments carry us through that progression in season 2 - some of my favorites:

Perfect message. You know who else talks a lot about service? Coach K Tony Bennett (go Hoos).

I digress, but shortly after that, we arrive at the season finale when The Bear opens for the first time. It's a terrific piece of television that adds so much conflict to this upward progress - everything has costs, even these positive developments - and we, the audience, are left rooting for these characters to make the wisest choices they can.

Can Carm find a way for Claire and The Bear to flourish together? How will Marcus react to missing emergency calls about his sick Mom?

But through it all, the show maintains hopeful undertones, which I hope it never loses. I mean find me another great drama that pays homage to John Hughes in one episode and carries you out with Taylor Swift in another (see the final moments of 'Forks,' S2, E7) - and to have Olivia Colman deliver the parable underscoring that ‘Every Second Counts?’ Just too good.

This show is a vintage Springsteen album - tons of layers packaged in anthems, and audiences both respect and love it.

We need much more of that on TV. Or maybe I do, but I suspect I'm not alone.

More Good Stuff

• The nastiest pitch Greg Maddux ever threw

• The origin of the Michelin star system

• Benjamin Franklin's long list of synonyms for 'drunk'

• Chick fil a heads across the pond

• Meet the Indiana Jones of the art world 

• US soccer announces $50M national training center in Atlanta

• Last week's Colorado/CSU game draws biggest late night college football audience in ESPN history

Lastly, an all-time great commercial

1979 PBR spot starring Patrick Swayze.